On Sunday 8th of December, QMULBC rowers headed off to Wallingford Head of the River. In the Novice division, the women’s 8 racing in Millennium Mary consisted of (from bow to stroke) Ellie Hanson, Caragh Newman, Elouise Heap, Olivia Tasker, Imogen Millibank, Lucia Harrington, Penny Newson, Aleks Wrona, and Miriam Harbourn as the cox. The novice girls performed well in their first race of the year despite unavoidable clashing with other crews. Their hard work and willingness to improve in the New Year means that the development of the women’s squad is looking very promising.
The Men’s Intermediate-3 category saw the boys heading out, racing in Michael Biggs. The boat consisted of (from bow to stroke) Kieran Hashmi, Toby Barton, Przemysław Klupś, Neil Patel, Matt Mahmoudi, Miles Farrell, Rob Ballantyne, Marcus Yarwood and Miriam Harbourn again as the cox. Although they did not win their category, the men’s senior squad showed potential for what they can do, as a boat made up mostly of novices out performed themselves racing in a category higher than they should have been. Rob Ballantyne, Fresher Captain, expressed his satisfaction after the race: ‘We paced ourselves really well, stayed strong and pulled away during the second half. The last kilometre was really tough, but in the end we managed to get a good time. I was really impressed with the improvement and dedications shown by the freshers.”
With persistent heavy rain and high winds in southern England causing very strong and fast flows in the river Thames and cancelling most of the races, all eyes are now fixed to Kingston Head on 22nd March and Men’s Head of the River on 29th of March, where hopefully QM Boat Club can put all of their hard work to good use and honour their club.
